Sometimes the magic in cinema comes not just from incredible shots, but from
bringing two together to yield something more than the sum of their parts.
These are the top ten most memorable editing moments of all time.
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Kicking us off at number ten, the beginning of City Of God.
Bursting with energy, the very first shot is [FOREIGN] thrusts us into the rhythm,
the music, and the violence, the underbelly of Rio.
Jump cuts, repeated action, frenetic montage, and
a final bullet time, graphic match wipe sound like a recipe for disaster.
But in City of God, they don't just work, they electrify the screen.
>> Hey.
[SOUND] >> Next up at number nine,
the end of Bonnie and Clyde.
Arthur Penn's fateful finale showed us a death unlike any Hollywood had ever seen.
The pace accelerates to breakneck speed as a shifty Malcolm and
startled flock of birds bring us towards one last glance between mythic lovers,
before their slow-mo demise.
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>> Can't reach now.
>> I'm trying.
>> Come on, I got you, up.
>> Come along, Mrs. Todd Hill.
>> At number eight, Hitchcock's North by Northwest.
When most think of Hitchcock,
they think of a stiff British director, the master of suspense.
But even Hitchcock wasn't above a little double entendre.
And that's exactly what he used to skirt around censorship laws
in what amounts to one giant editorial dick joke,
but Hitchcock's got more to him than visual puns.
In addition to North by Northwest,
which has world class editing all the way through,
we'll be coming back to infer one of the most shocking sequences of all time.
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>> Michael Francis Rizzi, do you renounce Satan?
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[SOUND] >> I do renounce him.
>> Next up at number seven, The Godfather baptism sequence,
one of the most iconic intercut sequences in all of cinema.
Coppola's Godfather climax sees Michael Corleone securing his place of power by
orchestrating a series of gangland killings,
all intercut with his baptismal vow to renounce the powers of evil.
The effect of the juxtaposition is haunting.
Through the power of association,
we see Michael christened as the new Godfather in the blood of his enemies
whose corpses lie motionless in nomine patri et fili Spiritus Sancti, amen.
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At number six, the historic Odessa steps sequence of Battleship Potemkin.
There's hardly a more celebrated achievement in editing than
Eisenstein's Bolshevik propaganda piece.
Exemplifying his theory of montage-esque conflict, the concept of two discrete
shots giving rise to an idea bigger and different than their individual meanings.
Not only is Potemkin pretty much required watching for
film school 101 around the world,
but it's been ripped off, paid homage to, and parodied more times then we can count.
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[SOUND] Number
five, Psycho.
Nothing can prepare you for the shock of the shower scene,
the terror of the knife coming at you, the violence, the nudity.
Of course, none of it's actually there.
There is no actual threat, not a single stab on screen or
even a single frame of nudity.
It's all part of the editing that Hitchcock uses to evoke these effects
in one's mind.
In 78 cuts over 45 seconds, we only see blood washing down the drain,
which Hitchcock so
beautifully connects with Marion Crane's eye in a Final evocative resolve.
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Next up at number four, Un Chien Andalou.
When Luis Brunelle approached Salvador Dali with the story of a cloud slitting
the moon like a knife, Dali told him about his dream of a hand crawling with ants.
Thus became Un Chien Andalou, or The Andalusian Dog, a title that means
just about as much as anything else in the film, which is to say nothing at all.
But just because it lacks rationality doesn't mean it lacks impact.
The eye slitting sequence is shocking to this day.
The graphic match, the dream logic, and the growing dread of the inevitable slice
are created entirely through the strange juxtaposition,
which just goes to show the massive power of editing.
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Counting down to number three, the opening of Apocalypse Now.
Francis Ford Coppola's meditative masterpiece on the horror of war and
the human soul begins in striking fashion.
A series of mesmerizing super impositions connects the slow motion
memories of helicopters to a ceiling fan and a disoriented Captain Willard.
There is hardly a better example of the power and
beauty of montage in cinema than this sequence.
The ideas of each shot literally building one on top of the next,
punctuated by the base slices of helicopter blades and
orchestrated by the stern poetry of Jim Morrison.
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Next up at number two, the dawn of man cut from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Spanning millions of years in a single cut, Stanley Kubrick's visual metaphor
works on so many levels, connecting the invention of tools to the advent of space
travel, the flight of a bone to our lift off to the moon.
It is this kind of non-verbal communication that makes editing such
an incredible medium,
communicating as Eisenstein prescribed through the clash of imagery.
There's hardly a more iconic match cut than this one from Kubrick's masterpiece,
but if we had to pick one, it would probably be number one,
Lawrence of Arabia.
>> Now drag on it, it's going to be fun.
It is recognized that you have a funny sense of fun.
>> David Lean's timeless desert epic captured imaginations and
inspired generations over three and
a half stunning hours in massive 70 millimeter wide screen.
But there's perhaps no single cut more cinematic than when Peter O'Toole
blows out a match and transports us to a magnificent desert sunrise.
Perhaps it is his smirk, or the deep harmonics of the puff of air, but
something about this cut carries weight, beauty, and the richness of theme.
Which is why we think it's most memorable moment in editing of all time.
So what do you think?
Were any of these moments less than memorable?
Did you find yourself especially missing any of the other classic editing
moments we left out?
Let us know in the comments below and subscribe to Cinefix for
more indie wire movie lists.
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